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Glen Ellyn, Illinois 60137
(630) 469-2891
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Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Sister Carrie

Literary Tour of Chicago

This month we joined the Glen Ellyn Historical Society Book Club in its reading of Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser. One of the joys of reading Sister Carrie has been to follow Carrie on her journey through the streets and sights of Chicago in 1889. Dreiser wrote the book in 1900, but set it in a time when Chicago was on the verge of major change and development in preparation for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. Chicago just wasn't the same in 1900 as it was in 1889 - and neither was Carrie Meeber.

One of the remarkable things about a Sister Carrie Literary Tour is not how much has changed, but how much has been preserved. It might take a little imagination, but the ghosts are there among the landmarks.

We are working on creating a map of all of these sights for a self-guided sightseeing tour. If we have enough people to sign up we will arrange a private bus tour from Glen Ellyn, which will include a cocktail hour at the Palmer House Hotel. If you are interested in joining us, please contact Sue or Margie at The Bookstore at (630) 469-2891, or comment below.

All page references are to the Signet Classic Paperback Edition, 2009.

1. Old Wells Street Train Station

Carrie arrives on the Chicago and North Western train from Wisconsin, which in 1889 would have pulled into the old Wells Street Station at Wells and Kinzie. This station was torn down in 1911 when a new station was built on the west side of the Chicago River. The Merchandise Mart now stands at this location. This scene is where Carrie parts from Drouet and greets her sister Minnie Hanson (p. 9).

Drouet pulls out a “neat business card” and
hands it to Carrie on the train, trying to impress her. As he says in the book: “ ‘This is the house I travel for,’ he went
on, pointing to a picture on it, ‘corner of State and Lake.’ There was pride in
his voice.” (p. 7)

The Page Brothers Building is a Chicago
Landmark that represents the only standing cast iron façade building that was
built after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. This may have been Drouet’s
building, but if not, it is a good representation of the types of structures
standing at the corner of State & Lake in the Sister Carrie era. The
Chicago Theater had not yet been built.

3.Minnie Hanson’s Flat

Dreiser says that Minnie Hanson’s
flat is located at 354 West Van Buren. It is described as a working class
neighborhood inhabited by laborers and clerks (pp. 7, 11).The current location of this
address is on the east bank of the Chicago River, underneath the Congress
Street bridge in the middle of the Lower Wacker construction project.

This address is probably
fictional, because the book describes Carrie walking east on Van Buren through
an area of “shanties and coalyards” until she finally came upon the river.
Dreiser seems to be picturing Minnie’s flat to be several blocks west of the
river, possibly in the Halsted Street neighborhood. Later in the book, when
Carrie agrees to move out of her sister’s flat, Drouet says he will “come out
as far as Peoria and wait for her.” (p. 71). Peoria is two blocks west of Halsted.

“354
West Van Buren” in 2011. Images by Margie White.

4. Carrie’s Job
Search Across the Loop

Carrie’s brother-in-law recommends
she start her job search at the commercial establishments on Franklin. She
spots a dry goods wholesaler (“Storm & King”) on Franklin, but she chickens
out and wanders aimlessly through the Loop. She is said to have walked past
Madison, Monroe, La Salle, Clark, Dearborn and State, until she backtracked to
apply for a job at Storm & King. They didn’t have any job openings, but
they suggested she go apply at the department stores on State Street (pp. 16-20).

“As the oldest remaining buildings in the Loop,
this commercial block represents a rare example of what downtown Chicago looked
like when it rebuilt from the Fire of 1871. These early-Victorian era buildings
exhibit many of the distinctive features of post-Fire architecture, including
cast-iron columns, incised stonework, decorative window hoods, and arched
window openings. Located just one block from the Chicago River, this intact
group of "mercantile loft" structures is one of the last remnants of
the city's wholesaling district, an area that was integral to Chicago's status
in the late-19th century as the world's largest market for grain, lumber,
livestock, and provisions. The early occupants of these buildings represent a
compendium of period wholesalers: a tannery and leather dealer, a manufacturer
of iron and woodworking machinery, a sandstone company, a steam heating
company, mitten and hat manufacturers, and a corner saloon.”

5.The Fair Department
Store

Carrie
finally asked a policeman for directions to the department stores of Chicago,
and he directed her to The Fair on State Street. It was one of the more modest
department stores along what was then called the “Ladies Half-Mile.” Dreiser
uses clothing to portray social standing, so when the policeman sent Carrie to
The Fair, he had already judged her unworthy of the higher-end department
stores like Field’s or Carson, Pirie Scott. He was right. Carrie was enthralled,
and found it to be a “showplace of dazzling interest and attraction.” (pp. 21-22)

The
Fair occupied nearly every building along the north side of Adams between State
and Dearborn. According to Chicago Urban History:

The Fair was one of
several major department stores that operated along Chicago's State Street
during the early twentieth century and helped transform the city's Loop district into a bustling center of entertainment and leisure. Known for
the affordability and practicality of its merchandise, The Fair never attracted
the so-called "carriage trade." Instead, it catered primarily to
Chicagoans of more modest incomes: middle-class professionals, working-class
men and women, and first- and second-generation immigrants. One of the store's
most widely dissiminated [sic] marketing slogans promised “ ‘Everything for
Everybody under one roof' at a cheap price.” http://www.chicago.urban-history.org/ven/dss/the_fair.shtml

After Carrie’s
disappointment at The Fair, she heads back west along the south side of Jackson
Boulevard. She stops to apply at a hat-making shop on Jackson. She then crosses
Fifth Avenue (now known as Wells Street) and spots the fictional Rhodes,
Morgenthau and Scott, the wholesale shoe company where she is briefly employed (pp. 20-21).

Corner of
Jackson and Wells in 2011.

Image by Margie
P. White

The McKlintock
building in the background

was built in
1896 and was not standing in

Carrie’s era,
but would have been there

when Dreiser
wrote the book in 1900.

7.Union Park
Church in Ogden Place Neighborhood

In
Chapter 10, Dreiser states that “Drouet had taken three rooms, furnished, in
Ogden Place, facing Union Park, on the West Side. . . . The best room looked
out upon the lawn of the park. . . . Over the bare limbs of the trees, . . .
rose the steeple of the Union Park Congregational Church.” (pp. 90-91)

Union Park Congregational Church was
built in 1869, survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and temporarily housed
city workers while government offices were being reconstructed. Abolitionist
leaders Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman are said to have spoken at the
church. Martin Luther King Jr. also addressed the congregation. It was in the
news recently when its spire was damaged in the heavy snow and lightning in February,
2011. articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-02-06/news/ct-met-first-...

Although Carrie
and Drouet lived on Ogden Place, Ogden Avenue at Union Park is very commercial
now. In order to capture the feel of the upper and middle-class neighborhood as
it was in 1889, go to the West Jackson Historic District, located on the 1500
block of West Jackson, which is a Chicago Landmark and is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places.

In Chapter
15, Hurstwood writes to Carrie “asking her to meet him in Jefferson Park,
Monroe Street.” They met on a “rustic bench beneath the green leaves of a lilac
bush which bordered one of the paths.” (p. 142)

Jefferson
Park is now known as Skinner Park, and although it is surrounded by the Whitney
Young Magnet School, the Chicago Police Training Academy, and the new Skinner Elementary
School, it is still a lovely and lively city park with paths, park benches and
a playground.

Skinner Park “Sister Carrie” Benches
2011, Images by Margie White

More Information

For
more information about the locations in Sister Carrie, there is a list
available on Goodreads. Very few of these locations exist today, but there are
some historical and current images available on the web. Not all of the
websites provided are accurate or operational.